Morning Ag Clips logo
  • Subscribe ❯
  • PORTAL ❯
  • LOGIN ❯
  • By Keyword
  • By topic
  • By state
  • Home
  • Events
  • Jobs
  • Store
  • Advertise
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Subscribe to our
    daily email
    ❯
  • Portal Registration❯
  • Login❯
  • policy
  • tractors & machinery
  • education
  • conservation
  • webinars
  • business
  • dairy
  • cattle
  • poultry
  • swine
  • corn
  • soybeans
  • organic
  • specialty crops
  • Alabama
  • Alaska
  • Arizona
  • Arkansas
  • California
  • Colorado
  • Connecticut
  • Delaware
  • Florida
  • Georgia
  • Hawaii
  • Idaho
  • Illinois
  • Indiana
  • Iowa
  • Kansas
  • Kentucky
  • Louisiana
  • Maine
  • Maryland
  • Massachusetts
  • Michigan
  • Minnesota
  • Mississippi
  • Missouri
  • Montana
  • Nebraska
  • Nevada
  • New Hampshire
  • New Jersey
  • New Mexico
  • New York
  • North Carolina
  • North Dakota
  • Ohio
  • Oklahoma
  • Oregon
  • Pennsylvania
  • Rhode Island
  • South Carolina
  • South Dakota
  • Tennessee
  • Texas
  • Utah
  • Vermont
  • Virginia
  • Washington
  • West Virginia
  • Wisconsin
  • Wyoming

Morning Ag Clips

  • By Keyword
  • By topic
  • By state
  • policy
  • tractors & machinery
  • education
  • conservation
  • webinars
  • business
  • dairy
  • cattle
  • poultry
  • swine
  • corn
  • soybeans
  • organic
  • specialty crops
  • Home
  • Events
  • Jobs
  • Store
  • Advertise
Home » A Southern California oasis
WHAT'S GROWING ... Comments

A Southern California oasis

Gottlieb Native Garden boasts more than 100 species of native plants

PUBLISHED ON January 19, 2017

Birds flock to a large shrub called toyon, with white flowers in the summer, fall and spring, to nibble on its red berries. (Derell Licht, Flickr/Creative Commons)

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — Spread out along a hillside near the Beverly Hills Hotel, Susan Gottlieb’s baseball-field-size home garden — dubbed the Gottlieb Native Garden — boasts more than 100 species of native plants and brims with wildlife activity.

Birds flock to a large shrub called toyon, with white flowers in the summer, fall and spring, to nibble on its red berries. Bees descend on towering matilija poppies, whose large white and yellow flowers bloom in late spring. Butterflies love fragrant coyote mint, an herb with nectar-filled lavender flowers.

For the 75-year-old Gottlieb, an environmentalist, philanthropist and nature photographer, the garden has been a labour of love for nearly 30 years. A new book, “The Gottlieb Garden: A California Love Story” (National Wildlife Federation, 2016), written by Mallory Smith and featuring more than 120 photographs by Gottlieb, captures the garden’s essence.

“Native plants are so incredibly important for wildlife and insects, which are the base of everything,” Gottlieb said in an interview. “Most people, in the early ’90s, I found, had no clue what a native plant was, and drought-tolerant plants weren’t on the menu either. When I began the garden, I was a rank amateur. I’ve learned a lot.”

According to the Theodore Payne Foundation for Wild Flowers and Native Plants, a non-profit in Sun Valley, California, native plants not only thrive in local climates, but they provide food and shelter for native animals and also save water.

Yet native plants are not the same as drought-tolerant plants, Gottlieb stressed.

“Many California native plants are drought-tolerant … but not all,” she said. And “drought-tolerant plants can be from around the world.”

Her garden is on the Theodore Payne Foundation’s annual home tour of native plant gardens, and all profits from the book go to the foundation and other environmental groups. When the tour started more than a decade ago, 20 people came to see her garden; in 2016, hundreds filed through in a day, Gottlieb said.

The foundation’s executive director, Kitty Connolly, called the Gottlieb Garden “an inspiration for all gardeners. Susan’s skilful use of native plants shows how gardening can enrich our cities, support native wildlife and forge a strong connection with our natural heritage.”

Originally from a small mining town in Canada, Gottlieb grew up with water and nature conservation in mind from a young age. She later moved to California, worked as a nurse in San Francisco and Los Angeles, and met her husband, Dan Gottlieb, in 1984. Trips to California’s Death Valley and concern that lakes such as Owens Lake and Mono Lake would become dry because of Los Angeles’ need for water led her to create a water-saving home oasis.

She ripped out the moisture-guzzling ivy growing around her Beverly Hills home and replaced it first with drought-tolerant plants, then native plants. Dan and Susan Gottlieb also own the G2 Gallery, a nature and wildlife photo gallery in LA.

“Where I grew up, we hauled water to our home from the well, and electricity was expensive,” she said. “It always bothered me that we use so much water here in Southern California.”

Some of Gottlieb’s favourite plants in her garden include the perennial, purple-flowering herb verbena and tall, green, pod-bearing mesquite trees. She loves sweet-smelling California lilac, a low-growing shrub whose spring flowers go from white to dark blue.

For those wanting to create a garden with native plants, Gottlieb suggested starting off simple and small.

“Don’t get overwhelmed, and don’t do it all at one time,” she said. “I did it a bit at a time with my garden, and that’s why it’s taken me 30 years. Take gardening classes. California plants go dormant in the summer, and Eastern plants tend to go to dormant in the winter. It’s good if you can find a gardening class specific to the native plants in your area.”

___

thegottliebnativegarden.com

theodorepayne.org/calendar/annual-garden-tour/

___

Solvej Schou is on Twitter at twitter.com/solvej_schou

Copyright: For copyright information, please check with the distributor of this item, Canadian Press.

For more articles out of California, click here.

Click Here to find out more about your favorite topics

conservation gardening

Spread the word

Browse More Clips

UD researchers track avian influenza

S&W commences sorghum production

Primary Sidebar

MORE

CALIFORNIA CLIPS

Chef wins $15,000 for pizza honoring California’s gold rush history
July 5, 2022
USDA invests $13M to expand access to rural water infrastructure
July 5, 2022
APHIS expands, establishes citrus greening quarantine areas in CA
July 5, 2022
Jordan College receives national grants to expand research, train students
July 3, 2022
CAFF: Significant investments & drought relief for family farmers in state budget
July 3, 2022
  • Trending
  • Latest

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE...

How to protect growing flowers from budworms
July 5, 2022
PSU Extension downspout planters help reduce stormwater runoff
July 5, 2022
Sun-loving lantana can be hardy in Tenn. when conditions are right
July 5, 2022
Next Gen Ag & Conservation Professionals Mentorship Program actively seeking applications
July 5, 2022
Himmelstein Farm in Lebanon permanently protected
July 5, 2022

Footer

MORNING AG CLIPS

  • Sponsors
  • About Us
  • Advertise with Us
  • Privacy Statement
  • Terms of Service
  • Customer & Technical Support

CONNECT WITH US

  • Like Us on Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

TRACK YOUR TRADE

  • Markets & Economy
  • Cattle Updates
  • Dairy News
  • Policy & Politics
  • Corn Alerts

QUICK LINKS

  • Account
  • Portal Membership
  • Invite Your Friends
  • Subscribe to RSS
  • WeatherTrends
  • Just Me, Kate

© 2022 Morning Ag Clips, LLC. All Rights Reserved.